Deployable Perforated Sweeping Structure for Urinary Stone Capture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current urinary stone removal techniques face challenges in capturing and fragmenting stones in the bladder and kidney, particularly in open volumes where stones are mobile and difficult to manage, and the process of fragmenting stones disperses fragments throughout the volume, making capture and removal inefficient.
Innovation Solution
A stone capture device with a deployable perforate sweeping structure that engages stones against the body cavity wall, allowing for energy-based fragmentation while maintaining the stones in place, and using irrigation to wash and trap fragments within a mesh structure, reducing the need for a separate basket or tools to hold the stone.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a basket or tool is used to capture mobile stones in open volume, then stone capture is possible, but steering the scope and firmly capturing the stone becomes problematic and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a capture basket as an intermediary device between the endoscope and the stone. The basket is deployed from the endoscope, engages the stone in the open volume, and allows the endoscope to remain relatively stationary while the basket does the capturing work, thus solving the steering difficulty while maintaining capture reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The capture basket is nested within the endoscope's working channel during delivery, then deployed outward to capture the stone. This nesting approach allows the capture tool to be delivered through the constrained endoscope while expanding into the open volume to perform its function, resolving the contradiction between confined delivery and open-volume operation
2Productivity
If stones are fragmented with energy, then stone breakdown is achieved, but capturing the dispersed fragments becomes more difficult and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The capture basket is deployed and positioned around the stone before fragmentation occurs. This preliminary action creates a containment structure that will trap the fragments when they are produced, allowing high-speed fragmentation while ensuring fragment capture reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The basket acts as an intermediary containment structure that receives both the intact stone and its fragmented pieces. By having this intermediary in place before and during fragmentation, the system achieves both efficient stone breakdown and reliable fragment capture without the endoscope needing to track or recapture dispersed pieces
3Reliability
If a deployable basket is used to capture stones, then stone containment is improved, but the working channel of the endoscope is occupied and unavailable for energy sources
Solution Approach 1:
The device is segmented into multiple functional components that operate in sequence: first the basket is deployed through the working channel to capture the stone, then the basket is manipulated to hold the stone against the wall, and finally an energy source is introduced through the same working channel to fragment the stone. This segmentation of functions in time and space allows the working channel to serve multiple purposes without permanent occupation
Solution Approach 2:
The basket is designed to be dynamically deployable and retractable. It is deployed when needed for capture, positioned to allow energy delivery, and can be retracted or repositioned to accommodate different tools including energy sources. This dynamic behavior allows the same working channel to accommodate both containment and energy delivery functions
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Facilitates efficient capture and fragmentation of urinary stones, containing fragments within the mesh structure for easy removal, reducing the workload on the endoscope's working channel and improving the efficiency of the procedure.
Implementation Method 1
Energy is then applied through the viewing scope, typically laser energy delivered via an optical (laser) fiber advanced through a working channel of the viewing scope. The delivered energy disrupts the captured stone and large fragments, producing smaller stone fragments.
Implementation Method 2
Usually, the stone is held in place while delivering energy solely by the sweeping structure against the wall structure, and no separate basket, forceps, loop structures, or the like, are used to hold the stone in place. In a preferred method, the region around the captured stone is irrigated, typically before, during, and/or after the energy-based fragmentation, to wash the stone fragments into the sweeping structure.
Data Source
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AI summary
A stone capture device comprises a shaft with a deployable sweeping structure at its distal end. The shaft is adapted to be removably placed over and connected to a conventional ureteroscope. The combination of the stone capture device and ureteroscope can be introduced into the urinary tract to capture, fragment, and remove stones from the bladder and kidney.